CRC funded reports

1992-1993

The Council received reports from 16 completed research projects during the year 1992-93. Summaries of
these reports are given below. These reports are held by the Australian Institute of Criminology's
JV Barry Library and are available on inter-library loan. For full bibliographic information on any
report, search the Library's Catalogue.

Social correlates of suicide in Australia

The report provides a general overview of suicide in Australia by focusing on a
number of key social factors. Its aim is not to minimise the importance of
psychogenic factors in suicide but to highlight its sociological aspects.
Besides providing an introduction to the sociology of suicide the first three
chapters analyse suicide trends in Australia and the social and economic factors
associated with the fluctuation in the suicide rates over the past one hundred
years. Special attention is paid to the role of economic, social and demographic
factors which have elevated suicide rates in two theatres of life: the very
young and the aged. The next five chapters examine the mediating role of work,
family, occupation, gender, age, temporal cycle, seasons, immigration and
ethnicity in suicidal behaviour in Australia. The last three chapters examine
and explore in detail the etiological framework for explaining suicidal
behaviour as well as the stability and change in methods of suicide. The book
provides a synthesis of the existing studies of suicide and new and original
evidence on the relationship between suicide and social factors. It is argued
that study of suicide is an instructive way of understanding the social
organisation of death and dying in contemporary Australian society. The
empirical evidence presented in the book shows that suicidal behaviour like
other forms of social behaviour has important symbolic content and in the final
analysis it is shaped by the same social forces which influence and regulate the
other general patterns of social life in society. In other words all the reasons
which are good enough to live for are also good enough to die for. It is the
first systematic sociological study of suicide in Australia. It should be of
interest to university students and academics in the fields of sociology,
psychology, medicine, law and social work. It can be used as a textbook in
specialised university courses in these fields. Its contents should also be of
interest to police, legal professionals, teachers and members of welfare
professions. It is written in a manner to make its contents accessible to
members of the general public who are interested in the subject and would like
to expand and deepen their understanding of the problem of suicide which now
claims one life every four hours in Australia.

Articles published in journals as a result of this research are listed in
Appendix 2 of this report.

The effects of deregulatory policies on youth criminality and the connections between poverty and crime

Given the acute and continuing state of youth unemployment and poverty in
Australia over the last ten years, it is both timely and important that research
into the connections between youth, poverty and crime be investigated. This
study has looked historically at the pressures that have been brought to bear on
young people in Australia and the continuing policing of youthful pleasures. Now
at a time of soaring youth unemployment the pressures of poverty can be seen to
be drawing young people into doing wrong or what Focault would call
'transgressions'. Much of this crime is of a subsistence nature and has become a
necessary part of being poor, resulting in the case of young people of the
policing of poverty.

For young women an integral part of the transgressions of poverty involves
participation in the vice industry as part of the black or cash economy.

Australia is experiencing an increasingly vulnerable group of young people who
fall outside the guarantee of either work, training, or education and who are
being pushed by policies to the margins of Australian everyday life. There is a
need for careful consideration of the following:

that a joint Ministerial group on youth crime prevention be set up to consider and assist with the development of local youth policies and youth crime prevention strategies;

investigate ways in which an element of financial independence can be achieved for young people in need;

an enquiry to investigate the place of youth workers in all States in the work specifically of youth crime reduction and prevention;

an investigation into the ways that education can be made more flexible to account for the special needs of all young people, and to consider home tuition schemes as part of crime prevention;

the tying of special funds specifically to programs aimed at youth crime prevention should be considered; and

further funding should be allocated for continuing research into the effects of the structures of modern Australia on the lives of young people.

Action by all States needs to be immediate, otherwise the urban riots
experienced in recent times in both the UK and the USA will quickly become a
reality throughout Australia.

Job design, social supports and occupational stress in prison officers

The problems faced by the penal system and ultimately by prison officers appear
to have increased as a result of developments that have occurred in the past few
years. Examples of such changes include:

overcrowding in prisons;

the media focus on the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and recent escapes from prisons;

the nature of the prison population is changing; and

there have been significant changes to the management practices in prisons in each State of Australia with the introduction of 'Unit Management'.

Given the nature of the job, and the specific stressors or changes which are
imposed from time to time, many questions arise. For example, is it the case
that prison officers report more 'stress' than the general population,
experience more physical health problems than the average person, job
satisfaction and its relation to stress and health, officers' personality. Can
selection methods be refined to exclude those less well suited to the nature of
the job.

Many of these questions are addressed in this study. In addition, the model of
stress proposed by Karasek which claims that job strain is influenced by the
interaction of three job characteristics: job demands, supports and constraints.
A fourth variable 'personality' was added to the model. One aim was to examine
the moderating influence of negative effect and job characteristics on physical
and mental well-being. Specifically, it was predicted that job demands and
negative effect would combine, interactively, to account for a significant
proportion of the variability in measures of mental and physical well-being.

The report contains the results of a survey of 391 prison officers conducted in
1990. In broad terms the data reveal that the prison officers participating in
the study were physically and mentally less healthy than what would be expected
of a sample taken from the wider community. In addition, there was also a
significant sex difference in officer well-being, with female officers fairing
significantly better than their male counterparts.

Differences between prisons were evident. Officers in medium security prisons
had higher levels of job satisfaction and exhibited fewer symptoms of physical
ill-health. They also perceived their working environment as being more
supportive of them and less constraining. This pattern of results is in
contradiction of the data from a smaller study in 1991 where it was found that
officers in a medium/maximum security prison were the least healthy. Given that
officer health seems to be related to job perceptions, it is suggested that the
better health, observed in the medium security prisons, may reflect a successful
transition to unit management practices. Other prisons have not yet had as much
experience with this system.

Officers' perception of job demands as well as work and non-work social supports
were found to have a significant impact on work attitudes, absenteeism rates,
mental and physical well-being and health-related behaviours. Negative effect
was also found to influence these variables, but its influence was most notable
when it was found to interact with job demands and non-work supports.

Several practical and theoretical implications follow from the results of this
study. One suggestion is that selection strategies may be usefully employed to
reduce overall levels of stress in the officer population. Measures of negative
effect may prove to be particularly useful in this regard. This strategy,
however, will only be of benefit to those officers employed in the future. A
second outcome is that the degree to which work and non-work supports can be
manipulated, or increased, will have a positive impact on well-being and
attitude. As such, this strategy offers a proactive management strategy which
will have benefit for current as well as future employees.

It is also clear from the study that additional refinement and standardisation
of the instruments which measure job characteristics is needed. The various
facets of job demands, supports and constraints need to be investigated more
thoroughly to determine their underlying factorial structure. More refined
measures will lead to better predictions and, perhaps, more effective
intervention strategies. The absence of generally accepted and standardised
measures of job characteristics makes it difficult to compare studies on the
absolute levels of adversity and subsequent strain experienced by job
incumbents. Until better instruments are developed, it is important that more
longitudinal research is undertaken as this would be beneficial in helping to
determine the causal influences of job characteristics on changing levels of
strain.

While official crime statistics from many countries show that unemployed people
have high crime rates and that communities with a lot of unemployment experience
a lot of crime, this cross-sectional relationship is very often not found in
time-series studies of unemployment and crime. In Australia there have been no
individual-level or cross-sectional studies of unemployment and adult crime
which have failed to find a positive relationship, and no time series studies
which have supported a positive relationship. This is the paradox of
unemployment and crime. Consistent with this pattern, a time-series of homicide
from 1921 to 1987 in Australia reveals no significant unemployment effect. A
theoretical resolution of the paradox is advanced in terms of the effect of
female employment on crime in a patriarchal society. Crime is posited as a
function of both total unemployment and female employment. When female
employment is added to the model, it has a strong effect on homicide, and
unemployment also assumes a strong positive effect.

The key to sorting out the complex effects of employment on crime is therefore
to realise that the employment rate is not the opposite of the unemployment
rate. The report shows that female unemployment increases the homicide rate at
the same time as rising female employment also increases the homicide rate. The
policy implication is that unemployment is a cause of crime but that if female
employment rates are allowed to rise without a support structure for employed
women (child care, after-school care, men who are willing to share domestic
work, flexible working hours) then crime will rise. The Scandinavian countries
have achieved high female labour force participation without pushing up crime
rates as a result because they have provided more systematic structures of
support for working women. While this is the policy implication if the
conclusions of the report are right, more research is needed to test the
analysis on different kinds of data sets.

The paradox of unemployment and crime is explored in Part I of the report
through a brief review of the empirical evidence. This shows that there is a
strong positive association between crime and unemployment at the individual
level, a clear positive association at the cross-sectional level that gets
weaker as the level of geographical aggregation increases, but quite an
inconsistent relationship over time.

In Part II, a theoretical resolution to the paradox is advanced based on the
contention that crime in general is a function of both total unemployment and
female employment. Although various types of crime are expected to provide
differential support of this theory, the contention is that crime in general
will rise with both total unemployment and female employment. Our empirical
evaluation of this hypothesis (presented in Part III) is restricted to one type
of crime (homicide) in one country (Australia). Finally, Part IV addresses some
policy implications of the revised understanding of the relationships between
unemployment and crime developed in the previous two parts.

The report therefore makes three quite separate contributions. Part I provides a
synthesis of the literature which allows us to make sense of the confusion most
criminologists feel about the state of the empirical evidence on unemployment
and crime. There are good reasons to be cynical both about the claims of those
who say that unemployment has been discredited as an explanation. Part II is a
contribution to the theory of unemployment and crime. It faults previous
theoretical work for failing to think clearly about the separate effects of male
and female unemployment and male and female employment in a patriarchal society.
A theory that focuses on the significance of employment-unemployment in a
patriarchal society not only opens up the prospect of an understanding of
unemployment with more empirican bite; it also supplies a normative and
historical framework for resisting the ill-conceived policy inference that
keeping women in the home is a good way to fight crime. This issue is taken up
in Part IV. In this context, Part III is not even the beginning of a systematic
test of the theory in Part II. It is simply an illustration of how the theory in
Part II can guide a fruitful respecification of studies of unemployment and
crime.

This study represents the first Australian attempt to obtain empirical data
describing the nature and prevalence of gambling-related criminal behaviours
amongst diagnosed pathological gamblers.

Since the 1973 Tasmanian Interdepartmental Committee Report, government
inquiries and reviews on the gambling industry have consistently emphasised the
paucity of available information outlining the social and welfare impact of
gambling on the general community. While it is readily acknowledged that
significant economic, revenue and political advantages are gained by the
community in general and State governments in particular, it is equally
recognised by welfare organisations that severe negative effects are suffered by
a minority of adults diagnosed as pathological gamblers. The prevalence rate for
pathological gamblers is 0.5 to 1 per cent, a figure comparable to that for the
proportion of hard drug users in the community.

Welfare organisations have highlighted social and familial costs associated with
excessive gambling but have generally neglected the possible relationship of
pathological gambling and the commission of offences to support such gambling
habits. Psychiatric and psychological clinical studies have consistently
described high rates of illegal behaviours in samples of pathological gamblers
seeking treatment. These studies have also noted that a significant proportion
of these do not exhibit any evidence of antisocial personality but present
before the courts charged with offences motived directly by a need to maintain
their habitual gambling and not personal economic gain.

The proposition that a strong causal link exists between gambling and offending
has been offered in some American courts of law as an argument for diminished
responsibility in defence of gamblers prosecuted for alleged offences, or
alternatively and increasingly more common in the Australian context, as a
significant mitigating factor which magistrates should rightly take into
consideration in sentencing offenders.

The results of this study revealed that a significant proportion (59 per cent)
of pathological gamblers participate in some form of illegal activity for the
specific purpose of obtaining gambling funds. Approximately 23 per cent of
pathological gamblers had committed serious non-violence property offences that
resulted in arrest or conviction. Of those charged, 42 per cent received
custodial sentences and served an average of one to two years in prison.
Importantly, only 15 per cent of the total sample of gamblers studied were
classified as having antisocial personality disorders. These findings suggested
that offences occurred in response, or secondary, to manifest gambling-induced
financial problems.

The frequency and value of offences constitutes a significant legal and social
cost to the community. On average, each offending gambler was found to have
committed a median of ten offences over a period of ten years. The median
monetary value per offence was $300 with a mean value of $4,264. Approximately
14 per cent reported offences ranging between $13,000 and $250,000.

Forensic application of DNA fingerprints and limitations due to DNA damage

This project used three methods of DNA identification: DNA typing using single
locus probes; DNA fingerprinting with multi-locus probes; and polymerase chain
reaction (PCR) for sex determination. The hypothesis to test was whether DNA
profiles remain constant over time, including the lifetime of an individual.
This has relevance to the potential establishment of computer databases of DNA
profiles of criminals as an aid towards identification and prosecution. Two
families and unrelated controls have been examined to date and using the three
criteria described. In all instances, there was no evidence for change in DNA
profiles in these samples, even when cells from rapidly ageing individuals were
used. This provides evidence for the stability of DNA profiles over a person's
lifetime.

DNA was extracted and purified from 13 human cell lines. These represented two
families (A and B) - each having a grogeroid child (family A: proband cell line
3513 and family B: proband cell line 3198). The DNA was then characterised by
profiling and sex typing analysis.

The isolated DNA was digested with three restriction endonucleases: PstI, HaeIII
and HinfI, size separated by agarose gel electrophoresis, transferred to nylon
membranes and hybridised with a single-locus probe YNH24 which recognises an
informative region, D2S44, in the human genome.

The sizes of complementary DNA fragments binding to this probe were measured by
comparing their relative mobilities to those of DNA size standards. The genotype
of each individual at the D2S44 locus was determined, generating a DNA profile
for each cell line. The genotype frequency of each cell line was calculated
using databases containing the frequency of allele sizes identified within a
sample population, at this locus, for each endonuclease. By extrapolating the
databases to the level of the entire population, which is a significant
assumption, the probability of a random individual having the same genotype as
each cell line was determined. These values were typically less than 1/70. Due
to the presence of segregating rare alleles within both families, this
probability value was found to be quite low for some cell lines. As the most
extreme example: 1/86,000 would have a PstI-generated phenotype identical to
that of cell line 3263. Such probabilities were generated even when using a
relatively conservative approach for statistical analysis, although they did
vary between databases used and were a factor of ten less, in most instances.
Thus the level of individual identity of each cell line within the population
was established.

The profiling technique also allowed pedigree determination as the alleles at
such a locus segregate in a Mendelian fashion. It was found however, that while
the alleged parental alleles in family A could be traced to the children and the
genetic relationship between the cell lines established; in family B, pedigree
could not be confirmed. The alleged parental cell lines (mother 3257 and father
3258) appeared to have an identical genotype. As the greatest probability of
this occurring was estimated to be one in 600 people (1/600), this indicated
that these cell lines had probably been derived from the same donor. The
conclusion was confirmed by the fact that neither of these cell lines possessed
an allele present in their alleged progeny, indicating that one of these cell
lines was not a parent. Sex-typing using PCR methodology was then performed in
order to confirm the gender of the cell line donors under study. This confirmed
the results established by probing, consolidating the conclusion that the
paternal cell line in family B was in fact a female*apparently identical to the
maternal cell line. Re-sourcing of the parental donor tissues helped to resolve
this issue in work conducted after the Council-funded period of the project.

Further non-Council funded work has continued and the final results will be
published in a journal article.

Evaluation of an innovative community based drink driving rehabilitation program

Report title: Evaluation of an Innovative Community Based Drink Driving Rehabilitation Program (PDF 5.6MB)Grantees: Dr Mary Sheehan and Dr Victor Siskind, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, The University of Queensland; Doug Woodbury, Research and Evaluation Unit, Queensland Department of Transport and Robert Bleakley, Community Corrections, Queensland Corrective Services Commission
Criminology Research Council grant ; (10/90)

This research project undertaken with funding from the Council and the Federal
Office of Road Safety aimed to determine whether a newly designed Corrective
Services Commission Drink Driving Rehabilitation Program was viable as an
approach to rehabilitation and whether it could be evaluated.

Background research indicated that there were approximately 25,000 convictions
for drink driving annually in Queensland and a review of RBT statistics for 1990
found that 16,507 persons had a blood alcohol content of 0.05. The overwhelming
majority (94.1 per cent) of these offenders received licence suspensions which
were considerably longer than the mandatory suspension levels and thus were
relatively more severe than any of the fines, prison sentences and community
service which were to be kept at minimal levels. Prison sentences were imposed
on 238 offenders during 1989-1990 and almost twice as many again were admitted
for defaulting fines or community service orders.

There are major problems in the application of a classic experimental model to
evaluating drink driving rehabilitation. Numbers of occasions are small,
particularly if crash involvement is used as the outcome measure. Recent
literature recommends more radically that drink driving should be considered a
'symptom' rather than the 'disease' and that the use of more broadly based
lifestyle outcome measures such as drinking and drink driving frequency,
employment status, family stability, etc. are more appropriate.

The Queensland Corrective Services Commission Drink Driving Rehabilitation
Program is the only one currently available in Queensland. It was initiated in
1989 and is a 'user pays' program which involves educational segments provided
by community stakeholders. It takes six and a half months to complete and aims
to improve offenders' knowledge and attitudes, and to offer an alternative to
extended prison sentences for multiple offenders.

The program is clearly practical and feasible. In the three years since it was
proposed fifteen centres have been established involving at least 450
participants. The achievement and acceptance level involved here should not be
underestimated. Each course includes participants from seven government and
non-government organisations and has achieved high acceptance from magistrates.
It is conducted primarily with multiple offenders who have other serious social
disadvantages. A sizeable proportion of participants are over 30 years of age,
poorly educated, socially disadvantaged and have already had previous prison
sentences for drink driving and other offences.

In spite of its high level of acceptance it lacks a locally designated
coordinator and is not based on a knowledge-attitudinal-behaviour change model.
There is no collaborative training, coordination or support given to the persons
delivering it. The program also needs much closer supervision of participants
and clearer guidelines as to alternative strategies to deal with the small
number of participants who attend the program after heavy drinking. If these
problems are not rectified it may be difficult to maintain at its present level
of implementation.

Because of these weaknesses in its current form it would be very difficult to
justify the expense of trying to establish a formal evaluation.

The Hindley Street Project Centre was founded ten years ago. It is now primarily
a drop-in centre for young predominantly Aboriginal people who visit in Hindley
Street, Adelaide, on Friday and Saturday evenings. Because Hindley Street is
generally regarded as a dangerous environment at night time, the function of the
Centre is, to a large extent, to cater for the safety needs of the users; but,
in addition, it provides a generic service which includes the provision of
information, referral, counselling, advocacy, health care and recreation. As
such, it provides a unique service in Australia. How effectively the Centre was,
in fact, operating and meeting the needs of users was the subject of this
enquiry.

The evaluation employed a variety of methods of data collection. These involved:
direct observations of the operation of the Centre; interviews with staff, both
full-time paid and voluntary; interviews with users of the Centre (48 Aboriginal
youth and six non-Aboriginal); interviews with representatives from other
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth agencies; interviews with police officers
working in Hindley Street; and interviews with traders in Hindley Street. From
these sources a composite picture of how the Centre operated was gained and also
how it was perceived to operate from a variety of sources.

As a drop-in centre the Project Centre is well patronised, with numbers varying
between 30 and 100, depending in part upon the season and available attractions
in Adelaide at the time. Approximately 90 per cent of the users are Aboriginal,
with equal numbers of males and females, ages ranging from 12 to 26 years. The
mean age for those interviewed in the study was 16 years.

Although the environment in the Centre is not entirely 'safe' (some fighting and
drunkenness was reported), being there was found to be considerably 'safer' than
being in the street, and was widely regarded by the bulk of those interviewed
from outside the Centre (staff in other youth agencies, traders and the police)
as providing, in this respect, a valuable service. The quality of the health
service provided at the Centre on Friday evenings was found to be generally
good, but, given the health needs of this population of users, in need of
extension.

Relationships between users and staff both permanent (entirely non-Aboriginal)
and part-time volunteer, were, on the whole, positive but generally not close.
In providing information in a number of areas*legal, employment, accommodation,
social security payments*and helping in emergency situations, the Centre is
clearly performing a useful function. In general, its role is passive, rather
than pro-active. For example, although promoting recreational activities, games
and camps is intended, these are only minimally facilitated. It was felt that
the staffing of the Centre with at least some Aboriginal people, rather than all
non-Aboriginal people, could result in the social and recreational function of
the Centre being strengthened.

Relationships between users and the Police were somewhat fragile, with some
police officers dissatisfied with the Centre because it is seen as protecting
offenders. At the same time, it was found that users were, on the whole,
accepting of the role of the Police and not unduly critical.

In summary, it was found that the centre was carrying out a useful role in
Adelaide particularly in providing a relatively safe environment for young
Aboriginal people drawn into Adelaide at weekends and clearly 'at risk'.
Although the service provided was, in some respects, passive, rather than
pro-active, and also under criticism from some police officers, its overall
value and need for sustained supportive funding is hard to dispute.

The report of this researh is an analysis of forms of male-on-male homicide. It
is a follow-up to an earlier study which, consistent with research elsewhere,
found that males not only constitute a vast majority of homicide offenders, but
further that slightly over half of all homicides involve males taking the lives
of other males. The purpose of the present research is to establish, if
possible, the patterns which characterise these distinctively male homicides.

The data for the research are drawn from the files of the Office of the Coroner
of Victoria, and include all homicides reported to the Coroner for the years
1985-1989. The files consist of an initial report of the attending police
regarding the death, the brief prepared by the police for presentation at the
Coroner's Inquest, the autopsy report regarding the cause of death, any relevant
toxicology reports, and the report of the Inquest itself. For each of the 376
homicides reported in the five-year period, a case study was prepared which
focused particularly on the dynamics of the interaction which had taken place
between the victim and the offender. Just over half (51.6 per cent) of these
homicides consisted of events where males were involved both as offenders and
victims in the homicide.

From the analysis of the case study material, there were three major scenarios
which describe these male-on-male killings. The first of these consisted of
confrontational homicides, which typically began as a form of honour contest
between males which then resulted in a fight, leading ultimately to the lethal
violence. Such honour contests are distinctively male (only one case with these
dynamics involved women), and individuals of either underclass or working-class
origins (only two cases clearly involved a person of higher social class
position). These events were likely to occur in open public settings, such as
pubs, discos, streets and laneways, parks or reserves, or perhaps parties or
barbecues. The violence was frequently played out against a backdrop of male
peers, and alcohol use by either victim or offender was found in a majority of
cases. This confrontation scenario accounted for roughly one in five (74 or 19.6
per cent) of all reported homicides.

The second major scenario consisted of homicides which can be seen as a form of
conflict resolution. In all cases these individuals knew each other well, and in
most they previously had been friends. Most commonly the parties involved were
exceptionally marginal in both a social and economic sense, often having lengthy
criminal histories and being unemployed. Typically a dispute would develop
between victim and offender, dealing often with such issues as a debt. The fact
that these individuals were often firmly enmeshed in a criminal culture resulted
in their being placed in a position where they could not call upon conventional
conflict resolution techniques to resolve their dispute. For such persons,
violence then becomes an ultimate device for negotiating the conflict. The
resulting homicides frequently have an element of rationality and planning which
is not found in the confrontational homicides. There were a total of 38 such
killings in the five-year period, these making up 10.1 per cent of all
homicides.

The third scenario of masculine violence consisted of those homicides which
occur in the course of other crime. These homicides can be viewed as resulting
from the willingness of the offender to take the exceptional risks involved in
engaging in criminal behaviour. Overall, there were 60 such homicides, with the
most common sub-theme consisting of 'double victims' where the victim of an
initial crime, such as armed robbery, became the victim of homicide as well.

Viewed theoretically, these findings help to underscore the importance of an
interpretation of violence which adequately accounts for its masculine
characteristics. At the same time, in these male-on-male scenarios, the class
variable is equally prominent. An important question posed by these data
concerns the issue not only of why some males have a proclivity toward violence,
but the equally significant issue of how it is that others are constrained to
avoid violence.

Advances in medical knowledge and expertise have resulted in changes in the
causes and timing of death in most western countries. People are now living
longer and chronic, degenerative diseases which cause a gradual deterioration in
health over long periods have replaced communicable diseases as the major causes
of death. So too the survival rate amongst premature babies with low birth
weights or those with congenital defects has improved.

The very success of medicine in treating illness means that death is postponed
until old age, but people may live long periods with chronic, painful,
debilitating conditions which are not terminal, or not immediately fatal. So
too, while the positive benefits of advances in medical treatments have led to
increased life expectancy and greater longevity, many treatments, especially
those of an invasive nature or those used to treat the severely or chronically
ill, also involve some element of risk, pain, and the possibility of greater or
lesser permanent damage or temporary side effects. Increasingly, too,
considerable medical resources are expended in prolonging life in situations
where survival is transitory or accompanied by severely impaired quality of
life.

The continuation of this successful and active pursuit of curing illness and
preserving life may cause problems for patients suffering from terminal or
grave, chronic illness. It can also cause dilemmas for medical practitioners and
members of other health professions where the harm caused to patients by
treatment appears to outweigh the benefits. In the future it may also pose
difficulties in financing health care delivery in societies where equitable
access to health care is regarded as a fundamental right irrespective of means.

The research addressed the first two of these issues, and probed whether medical
practitioners and nurses were ever asked to hasten the death of their patients
and the reasons such requests were made. In doing so an attempt was made to
reveal if patients or their families ever wanted to halt the prolongation of
life and whether this was prompted by a perception that the disadvantages of
medical treatment outweighed the beneficial effects. The study revealed that it
was common for medical practitioners and nurses to receive such requests from
their patients.

Almost half of those surveyed had received requests to hasten death by
withdrawing treatment from patients, and almost half medical practitioners had
received such requests from the families of patients. A considerable minority of
nurses surveyed had received requests from the families of patients. Lesser
proportions of both medical practitioners and nurses had also received requests
to hasten the death of patients by taking active steps. It was found that the
most common reasons for requests to hasten death were persistent and
irrelievable pain, terminal illness and incurable conditions.

The study also revealed that an overwhelming majority of medical practitioners
and nurses believed such requests could be considered rational. The main reasons
for this ascription were situations where patients suffered pain, were near
death or experienced an extremely poor quality of life.

Recently there has been a shift in the balance of issues confronting medical
practitioners away from simply attempting to keep patients alive, towards
finding answers to the question of when to allow patients to die. The survey
data on the proportions of patients and their families who request that death be
hastened either by withdrawing treatment or taking active steps indicates the
extent to which patients and their families wish to participate in medical
treatment decision-making during the terminal stages of illness. More
importantly, it suggests that a considerable proportion of patients and their
families believe this can no longer be left to medical practitioners alone.
Finally, the data also provides some evidence on the extent of the public
perception that some members of the medical profession may persevere too long or
may be over zealous in their pursuit of all treatment options.

An overwhelming majority of medical practitioners surveyed reported that they
had suggested to patients that no treatment be undertaken, while a considerable
majority had suggested that treatment be discontinued. That this is a recent
phenomenon is indicated by the fact that much higher proportions of young
medical practitioners had suggested withholding and withdrawal of treatment than
those over the age of 60 or those who had been in practice more than 30 years.

The study confirmed a lack of unanimity concerning the moral, ethical and legal
status of decisions to withhold or withdraw medical treatment, where the effect
of these actions would be to hasten the death of a patient. The research found
that there was some preparedness by medical practitioners and nurses to overlook
the law and take active steps to hasten the death of their patients. Eighteen
per cent of both groups had undertaken active euthanasia.

The survey revealed majority support amongst both medical practitioners and
nurses for guidelines to be established to clarify the legal position of medical
practitioners regarding withholding and withdrawal of medical treatment. Doctors
were less interested than nurses in clarifying the legal ambiguities of
decisions made in this area, and this is possibly because the current situation
allows considerable personal flexibility and autonomy, with little fear of
prosecution for those who wish to withdraw or withhold treatment.

Medical practitioners were divided on the question of the legalisation of active
euthanasia, with considerable and almost equal minorities opposed to, or in
favour of changes in the law. Nursing views were far more polarised, and a
clear, although small majority of nurses were in favour of the legalisation of
active euthanasia under some circumstances. The proportion who were undecided
was similar for both medical practitioners and nurses.

Among those who favoured the legalisation of active euthanasia there was
considerable consensus that terminal illness and intractable pain and suffering
constituted circumstances in which active euthanasia could or should be legal.
However, there were minority opinions that poor quality of life, mental
disability and physical handicap should also be valid circumstances for active
euthanasia. The diversity of opinion on these issues invites caution to ensure
that in framing guidelines or legislation, current abuses which result from
enthusiastic and aggressive pursuit of the aim of preserving life do not become
transmuted into abuses due to lack of adequate protection of life.

Gender and sentencing in the Victorian magistrates' courts: a pilot project

This research was a pilot project for an examination of the significance of the
gender of the defendant on sentencing by Victorian Magistrates. An observation
study of this type permits the gathering and organising of information about a
part of the legal system which has most impact on the community as a whole. The
operation and decision-making of the Magistrates' Courts have been difficult to
study, as much is undocumented. A quantitative study therefore permits analysis
of the large volume of information collected by observation for patterns and
themes which may suggest directions for further research and for policy
development. However, there are limitations in carrying out a quantitative study
of sentencing, particularly to test the effect of so complex a concept as
gender.

The study of 1,301 cases observed in three Victorian Magistrates' Courts
provides an important gender profile of defendants and of criminal proceedings
in our lower courts. It also reveals differences in the ways in which male and
female defendants experienced the criminal justice process, and were dealt with
by it. These findings have a number of implications for future research and
policy.

Women defendants were generally poorer than men appearing in court. They were
more likely to be financially dependent, either on another person or on the
State, and to have child-care responsibilities. They were more likely to be a
first offender, acting alone, and charged with an economic crime*against
property or public order (usually prostitution)*or a traffic offence. They were
very unlikely to be charged with an offence involving personal violence. They
tended to be somewhat less involved in the court proceedings than did men; more
women than men failed to appear at all, and fewer women actively participated in
the hearing. The implications of these findings are discussed further below.
Women's pleas in mitigation of sentence were more likely than men's to emphasise
first offender status, personal factors and family responsibilities. Women on
the whole were more likely to obtain a bond than a man, less likely to be fined,
and if fined, tended to receive a lower fine.

Nonetheless, preliminary multivariate analysis suggests that gender per se has
little influence on sentencing, except in relation to the size of fine. After
controlling for measures of offence seriousness and prior record, gender ceased
to have any relation to the likelihood of bonds and loss of licence (in traffic
cases) and to bonds and custodial sentences (in traditional crime cases). But
even after controlling for these factors, women received lighter fines for both
traffic and traditional crime cases.

Further research on the relevance of gender to sentencing should include
examining magistrates' understandings of their role, of the causes of crime in
men and in women, and of their philosophies of punishment. Differences between
magistrates need to be more fully examined, but it is also important to look at
the impact on magistrates of the factors being recorded, and their opinions on
the matters being presented to them. Research should also be directed to
analysing the court processes, from the decision to charge and the choice of
charge laid, to the presentation of the plea in mitigation as a form of
'packaging' the defendant.

Social and psychological moderators of the effectiveness of employment and training for repeat juvenile offenders

This report describes an evaluation of the effectiveness of the WorksYde
employment and training program in reducing the criminal behaviour, improving
the work attitudes and increasing the levels of psychological health among the
participants. The primary aims of this project were to assess the effects of the
program and to identify those variables that influence the relationship between
participation in the program and a reduction in criminal behaviour.

Interviews were conducted with male juvenile delinquents who were involved in
the WorksYde program and who therefore would, as required, be aged between 14
and 18 years with at least six court sanctions. A longitudinal design was
utilised in which an attempt was made to interview subjects twice with
approximately three to six months between interviews. Subjects were interviewed
while they were incarcerated (Longmore Remand, Longmore Training or Riverbank),
were on the Community Based Offenders Program (CBOP), or were unemployed or
employed. Female subjects were omitted from the study due to circumstances
beyond the control of the current project.

Subjects were individually interviewed using a structured interview schedule.
This technique was used rather than group testing as it was found to be the most
reliable method by which to obtain data from this subject population. The
interviews were used to discover information about the subjects' general labour
market attitudes, levels of general psychological well-being, social support
network, and criminal activities.

The results suggested that the WorksYde program had been generally successful.
Clients who had obtained employment engaged in more constructive leisure and
other positive activities, while their counterparts who had not found employment
showed little change in their patterns of activity.

Program evaluation at the Barwon prison

During 1991-1992 a program evaluation was conducted at Barwon security prison
near Geelong in Victoria. The study aimed to establish whether prisoners who
participated in articulated on-the-job off-the-job training programs offering
continuity of training in prison and after release were more likely to gain
post-release employment and less likely to re-offend than prisoners who
participated in non-credentialing programs.

Prisoners were interviewed six months prior to release in relation to past
employment, past education level and a range of personal identifying data such
as age, nationality and marital status. This first interview also sought details
of their current sentence and program participation.

At a second interview, just before release, prisoners were asked to review their
program participation at Barwon and their future employment and training
prospects.

Six months after release contact was made with community based corrections
offices and police records to gain information on post-release employment,
training and offending records.

Due to the limited time-scale for the evaluation only 46 men and seven women
could be included in the evaluation project. However, some trends in data were
apparent. First, most of the identifying data appeared to have no significant
outcome in terms of post-release employment or recidivism, except for previous
imprisonment experience. The six participants who had no previous prison
experience and who had personal contacts willing to provide employment, were the
only participants who gained full-time employment. Four of these six had
participated in credentialing programs at Barwon but only one continued his
training post-release and none of them gained employment in the area of training
at Barwon.

No prisoner who gained full-time post-release employment had any further contact
with the criminal justice system in the first six months after release. On the
other hand there was a trend towards higher recidivism amongst participants who
had 'shopped around' amongst available non-credentialing activities whilst in
prison, whereas those who enrolled in courses and pursued them for
'self-improvement', were less likely to be in further trouble with police after
release.

These tentative conclusions are supported by a larger study by the researcher at
Malmsbury Youth Training Centre (completed in 1986) in which it was found that
17 to 21-year-old trainees who achieved higher levels of schooling and had never
been in a youth training centre before were more likely to gain post-release
employment, and with the assistance of a relative or previous employer.

There are two recommendations for future program development coming out of the
Malmsbury and Barwon data:

The work of the Victorian Office of Corrections, in conjunction with the
State Training Board, to provide articulated training programs should continue
and be expanded because many prisoners become highly motivated to improve their
skills through participation and the current provision nowhere meets the demand.

Stronger supports need to be developed between prison and post-prison, not
only in the area of continuity in training program participation but also in
employer contracts, especially for recidivist offenders, who even with
successful completion of a training course in a high demand area of the labour
market, appear unable to secure any sort of employment without assistance.
Additionally, Commonwealth labour market programs, currently available only
after release, could be made available prior to release, possibly as part of an
intensive prerelease program which would involve prisoners working on
problem-solving tasks and simulations related to community living situations,
particularly in two areas of concern commonly mentioned by prisoners in the
current study namely, readjustment to family living and work.

These recommendations also apply to the small number of women who participated
in the evaluation. All were repeated offenders, none were able to participate in
a credentialed training program, and six months after release only one was not
in further trouble.

It is noted that the Office of Corrections Industry Training Plan (1993) places
great emphasis on the first recommendation. The second recommendation may
require new initiatives.

Women in prison

Report title: Women in PrisonGrantees: Women and Girls in Custody. Subcommittee of NSW Prisons Coalition, New South Wales
Criminology Research Council grant ; (39/91)

The outcome of this research is a book Prisons and Women by Blanche Hampton and
published by New South Wales University Press (1993).

The project examined the New South Wales prison system, from arrest to
post-release, as it related to women prisoners between 1986 and 1991. Data was
obtained from various sources including the Women in Prison Task Force Report
1984-85 and their recommendations, the New South Wales Department of Corrective
Services, and most importantly from women who were imprisoned during this
period. It had been intended to examine print media notions of female
imprisonment but the paucity of information available rendered this a futile
exercise.

Generally speaking, female imprisonment is a 'poor cousin' of male imprisonment,
if such a thing can be said to be possible. The sentencing options, rules and
regulations and classification system were devised with male prisoners in mind
and have been adapted little or not at all to the vastly different situation,
needs and possible outcomes of female incarceration. While a decade ago this
could have been said to be the result of oversight, even though the findings of
the Nagle report in 1976 pointed to major problems in the women's prisons, the
appearance of three major reports on issues of female imprisonment over that
decade, each reinforcing the findings and recommendations of its predecessors,
indicates entrenched negative attitudes on the part of Corrective Services to
concepts of reform.

There are four main areas of difficulty with the New South Wales prison system,
all of which apply with varying degrees to both female and male imprisonment:
overcrowding; lack of accountability; attitudes of custodial staff; and
post-release. Where there is concern displayed at the policy-making level of the
Corrective Services hierarchy for any of the above or other issues, a
combination of the first three makes the implementation of policy initiatives a
difficult if not impossible task.

The book commences with a general overview and then goes on to deal with arrest
and interrogation, rites of passage, and the daily grind. These sections are
followed by chapters on legal and welfare, health, family visits, custodial
officers, inmates, and post-release. The final chapter 'If I Had the Job ...',
suggests 29 recommendations for consideration.

The report of this project is entitled 'Estimating the Numbers of Heroin Users
in the ACT', Feasibility Research into the Controlled Availability of Opioids
Stage 2, Working Paper Number 1, by Ann Larson.

An accurate estimate of the numbers of heroin users in the ACT is essential for
determining the feasibility of a trial to provide opioids to dependent users in
a controlled manner. Not only does it indicate whether or not the extent of the
problems warrants a trial, but it is also vital for establishing the feasibility
of proposed trial evaluation techniques.

The ACT Drug Indicators Project data for 1988 and 1989 were examined using
list-matching techniques (also known as capture-recapture and
indicator/dilution). This gave an estimate of around 1000 people who see their
heroin use as a 'problem', with a standard deviation of around 200. This is
consistent with the 'best' estimates derived using other, more refined
techniques.

This study investigated the preferred conflict resolution strategies and causal
attributions of adolescent males in detention and on probation. Fifty-eight
males in detention (age range 15 to 18) and 38 males on probation (age range 17
to 21) were interviewed. Using 13 carefully constructed vignettes of typical
conflict situations, the respondents were asked to choose their preferred method
of solving the conflict from a choice of six methods, three of which were
passive and three aggressive. They were also asked to attribute the cause of one
conflict incident and to indicate their interest in learning how to communicate
more effectively in conflict situations.

This study has been valuable in providing a methodology to examine the
psychological make-up of offenders and it has yielded useful insights into how
young offenders view the world. It is clear that they have a mixed approach to
solving conflict, with immediate resort to physical strategies with peers, but
with more passive approaches to authority figures and, particularly to parents.
In terms of how they deal with conflict, there are few noticeable differences
between youth in detention and youth on probation. Certainly, the older group
appeared to be more willing to compromise but the preferred choices for
resolving arguments are still quite aggressive and socially maladaptive.

In terms of attributing causes to incidents, both populations are virtually
identical. They express a moderate level of acceptance of the problem but some
data suggest that these youth feel they have little control over events. There
is a definite need to follow this conclusion through, particularly to determine
whether, through courses and counselling, it is possible to change this
attitude.

The needs analysis showed that all these offenders are keen to learn how to cope
with their emotions and how to communicate with others in ways which will
enhance acceptance and mutual respect.

The lesson for the research team is that these offenders and probationers are
very similar in many ways. The effect of detention does not seem to have changed
the basic way they see life, particularly how they view conflict situations.
Even though offenders do not accept blame readily and feel they cannot control
events in their lives, they are keen to change and improve. Another continuing
problem is the influence of inappropriate methods of solving conflict,
accurately assessing blame and knowing how to communicate effectively on the
offenders' success in gaining and maintaining employment. It is likely that
their communicative and social skills will continue to cause problems for them
in vocational opportunities.

There is a serious concern with the literacy of young offenders. While this
problem is recognised by most juvenile justice researchers, and while it was not
the concern of this study, it is important to understand the extent of literacy
problems and the impact of low levels of literacy on the self-concept and
employability of offenders. If they lack the basic skills required to function
effectively in the mainstream of society, it is clear that young offenders will
always be marginalised. marginalisation engenders a commitment to values which
are inimical to full acceptance by society and which will ensure that these
offenders maintain patterns of behaviour which will ultimately cause them to
re-offend.

This study lends encouragement to the corrective system to take advantage of the
opportunity to improve the communicative and social capacities of offending
youth. Such programs, if effectively implemented, should mean that these youth
will reduce their current socially unacceptable ways of dealing with conflict.
The likelihood is, of course, that maintenance of inappropriate communicative
and social behaviour will bring these youth to the attention of the justice
system repeatedly. If these premises are correct, the continuing lack of
communicative facility and social skills may prove to be decisive factors in
recidivism in young Australian males.